Featuring 33 photographs, the exhibit “traces the history of First World War internment from the pre-war immigration boom – when the government actively recruited European immigrants – to the declaration of war and the enactment of the War Measure Act, which allowed the government to register and intern many of those same immigrants,” reads a description of the exhibition supplied by the St. Paul museum.
“The history of internment during the First World War in Canada is unfortunately not well known,” Caroline Dromaguet, Director General of the Canadian War Museum, stated. “I hope this exhibition will broaden the public’s understanding of how the war tore apart the lives of the internees and their families, and changed Canadian society at large.”
During the First World War, Canada interned 8,579 men of mainly Ukrainian and German origin determined to be “enemy aliens.” The exhibition explains how these internees were treated and the conditions in the camps into which they were forced between 1914 and 1920. It was developed in partnership with the Ukrainian Civil Liberties Foundation and is available for viewing at the St. Paul museum until Sept. 5.
